No NFL team is immune to change, but the Pittsburgh Steelers have done a better job than any team in the Super Bowl of limiting change in the head coaching role.
When Mike Tomlin stepped down as head coach of the Steelers, he ended a run of 57 seasons with only three different head coaches in Pittsburgh. All won at least one Super Bowl, and none were actually fired.
To put it mildly, that is not the norm. Take the Las Vegas Raiders, for example: when they fired coach Pete Carroll, they set out to hire their 13th full-time head coach in a span of 24 seasons. Not every team cycles through coaches as much as the Raiders do, but most teams' cadence with coaches is closer to the Raiders than the Steelers.
Here's a look at how the Steelers have seen so much coaching stability in the Super Bowl era.
MORE: Why Mike Tomlin stepped down as Steelers coach
List of Pittsburgh Steelers head coaches
Tomlin was only the Steelers' fourth head coach in the Super Bowl era, and that includes a brief three-year stint by Bill Austin in the 1960s. When the Steelers started a coaching search ahead of the 1969 season, little did they know they would be launching a run of coaching stability unmatched by the rest of the NFL.
Here is every Steelers head coach since Chuck Noll's hiring in 1969:
Chuck Noll (1969-91)
- Seasons: 23
- Record: 193-148-1 (.566)
- Playoff appearances: 12
- Super Bowl appearances: 4
- Super Bowl wins: 4
The Steelers made a franchise-altering decision in 1969 when they hired 37-year-old Chuck Noll as their head coach, despite Noll not having any head coaching experience.
Noll took his defensive background and instilled it into his team for 23 years, winning four Super Bowls and overseeing a dynasty in the 1970s. The Steelers remained patient with Noll after his first three seasons, which he finished with a combined 12-30 record, and it paid off soon after. Noll led the Steelers to double-digit wins in seven of the next eight seasons, a stretch that included all four of his Super Bowl wins, and he didn't have another losing season until 1985.
Noll finished his franchise-leading 23-year tenure in Pittsburgh with a record of 193-148-1, though it's his four Lombardi Trophies that made him a legend in Western Pennsylvania and in NFL lore.
RVR Photos-Imagn Images
Bill Cowher (1992-2006)
- Seasons: 15
- Record: 149-90-1 (.623)
- Playoff appearances: 10
- Super Bowl appearances: 2
- Super Bowl wins: 1
Succeeding a legend can be extraordinarily difficult for coaches in any sport, but Bill Cowher answered the call after Noll's retirement. Also hired without any head coaching experience, Cowher was brought in by the Steelers in 1992 after three seasons as the Kansas City Chiefs' defensive coordinator.
Cowher instantly led a four-win turnaround, earning him Coach of the Year honors, and he took the Steelers to the Super Bowl in his fourth season on the job. Pittsburgh missed the playoffs in three consecutive seasons after qualifying in each of Cowher's first six seasons, but the Steelers stuck with him and saw renewed results in the 2000s. The Steelers won 13 games in 2001 and 15 in 2004, but it was in 2005 that it all came together as Cowher guided Pittsburgh to its first Super Bowl win since the 1970s.
Raised in the Pittsburgh area, Cowher never coached anywhere else after stepping down following the 2006 season, instead joining CBS Sports as a studio analyst.
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Mike Tomlin (2007-25)
- Seasons: 19
- Record: 193-114-2 (.628)
- Playoff appearances: 13
- Super Bowl appearances: 2
- Super Bowl wins: 1
The Steelers took yet another swing when they searched for Cowher's replacement, as they landed on the Minnesota Vikings' 34-year-old defensive coordinator despite him having only one year of coordinating experience.
Mike Tomlin took the reins of the Steelers in 2007 and quickly proved worthy of the job, winning the Super Bowl in his second season and taking Pittsburgh back there in 2010 before coming up short.
In 19 seasons, Tomlin didn't post a losing record a single time. He oversaw an explosive offense led by Ben Roethlisberger, Antonio Brown and Le'Veon Bell in the mid-2010s, albeit without a return to the Super Bowl, and he reached the playoffs in five of his last six seasons with the Steelers.
While Tomlin didn't win a playoff game in any of his final nine seasons in Pittsburgh, he stepped away with a franchise-best.628 winning percentage.
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How many coaches have the Steelers had?
The Steelers have actually had 16 different head coaches in their history, with two of those coaches having multiple stints on the job, but 13 of them held the role before 1969.
Since Noll was hired in 1969, the Steelers have seen only three men coach games: Noll for 23 years, Cowher for 15 years and Tomlin for 19 years. With Tomlin's run over, the Steelers will hire their fourth head coach in a span of 58 years.